THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN by Michael Crichton ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Original review written March 29, 2020)

When quarantined from a global pandemic, you read books about threats to humanity. This was as much an escape as a knowing nod to the dark humor at reading a book like this at this exact moment. We all have to find the lightness in our situation somewhere; here’s a solid option!

What I thought would be a timeline for spread of this infection (in the book, not Corona) was actually a localized focus on the team set on deconstructing something foreign to anything we have on earth. There’s suspense and mystery at each turn, and a healthy dose of human error, which we know today to perfectly reflect reality. It’s easy to be critical of the characters and their faults that pile on as the clock ticks, especially when reading with fifty years of awareness and technology behind you, but Crichton explains the psyche for why we make the mistakes we do almost as thoroughly as he explains so many different fields of biology and chemistry. The immediacy for finding a solution packs on the excitement, while the journey doubles as a pretty thorough science course. Crichton truly makes the sciences exciting. Ya just love to see it.

This was a timely example for appreciating the scientists behind the scenes of these grand scale events and how they may be thrust into becoming quick thinking heroes so that others can hopefully not have to risk their well-being to help, let alone become sick themselves. The world today understands and literally applauds their work, and this book probably helped broaden that appreciation fifty years ago.